The Sailor who Single-Handedly Saved His Ship During the Pearl Harbor Attack

Yesterday marked the 70th anniversary of the attack on the US Navy base at Pearl Harbor, and “a day that will live in infamy”.

It is augustly remembered by Roger Hare as the day his father survived, along with many of his shipmates aboard the badly torpedoed USS West Virginia, because of the quick-thinking actions of a single sailor named Sylvester Puccio. And Hare wants everyone to hear the story.

“Typical of that generation, Puccio stayed silent about his heroics out of respect for the piles of heroes he witnessed — the boys who never returned,” wrote Hare in an anniversary column in the Auburn Citizen. “(Puccio’s) daughter, Pam Selden, did not know her dad saved many lives, including my father. So I used old Navy records to prove his action was crucial.”